


The King needs an heir

by epistretes



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alistair shocks the court, Arranged Marriage, F/F, F/M, Fade to Black, Leliana - Freeform, Non-Explicit Sex, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, dark ritual completed, dragons blood, grand enchanter fiona, mystical cures, not a happily ever after, past Anora Mac Tir/Cailan Theirin, political ties, set pre-Inquisition, spoilers for Asunder, spoilers for The Calling, the need for an heir, theirin bloodlines, zevran and surana bffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 20:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3087713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epistretes/pseuds/epistretes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I have been reliably informed” it seemed odd to call Avernus 'reliable', but there it was “that you were once a Grey Warden and that you are the sole Warden to have ever been cleansed of the taint.”</p><p>“Yes, you said as much in your letter. I came here to ask why you thought I might be able to help you.”</p><p>“Ah, yes,” his manner had grown more Kingly as he had got older and settled in to the familiarity of the role but he felt like a babbling moron speaking with this woman. “I mean, well, I was once a Warden, but as you had likely heard, I have an heir on the way and I would like to see him or her grow. Without fear of the Calling taking me away.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The King needs an heir

**Author's Note:**

> It is strange that when I need to just write something to get myself back in the flow of it after a short break, it seems to almost always be some sort of Alistair POV.

King Alistair Theirin had very rarely ever been defied in his rule of Ferelden after he had become the monarch and defeated the Archdemon. In all of those defiant acts, the Hero of Ferelden, Neria Surana had been the cause of almost all.

Now, she had possibly defied him for the last time and the thought that she might never return to the castle was breaking his heart. He might have had to keep her a secret, he might even have married another on his lover’s orders, but nothing had been more painful than watching her and Zevran sneak away under the cover of darkness on their mission. Well, perhaps the moment she had sunk her blade in to the Archdemon and his heart had stopped, desperately hoping that giving himself to the witch would really work and that she would be spared. It had worked and almost all of his dreams had come true. Sure he was a King now and he did not want the mantle, sure he had been made to marry his half-brother’s widow for political stability; but Neria was alive and she was the vessel of his dreams.

Two long weeks after she had disappeared with the former assassin for company to find a cure for the Calling, a secret missive had arrived from the blood mage Avernus at Soldier’s Peak. 

_My King,_

_Your ancestor, King Calenhad held dragon’s blood in his veins, this you know. The sample of dragon’s blood I received recently broke down the darkspawn ichor when mixed with human blood (freely obtained). I believe the dragon’s blood in your veins will purge you of the taint entire, likely soon._

_Only one other has ever been cleansed of the taint. Seek out the former Grey Warden Fiona - now the Grand Enchanter of Orlais._

_Warden-Commander Surana passed through here and bade me send you the bottle that accompanies the letter. Have your Queen drink it, it is a concoction I discovered during my studies._

_Grey Warden Avernus._

He had stared at the letter and the bottle in shock. On one hand, he would never feed Anora something Avernus sent, but it had seemingly received Neria’s approval. He could not consult her though, far away she must be now, but the timing worked. No one knew that the Warden-Commander was leaving and she would have been at the rebuilt Soldier’s Peak in the correct time frame for this to have been explained, approved and sent. Neria and Anora meant one another no harm, they had actually confounded him by becoming close friends and teaming up against him on occasion. No, Neria would not send something that could pose a threat to Anora, her friend and her Queen.

He did not love Anora in the way that he loved Neria and he knew that she did not love him back, but it did not mean that they were unhappy. They respected one another, they learned from and taught the other and even their occasional attempts at conceiving an heir were pleasurable. Often, it was Anora that came to him to try rather than the other way around and he did, although he hated seeing the sadness in her eyes whenever her courses came and proved that she had not perpetuated the Theirin bloodline. The last time anyone had been caught making disparaging remarks about the Queen’s fertility, the King had exploded and thrown the impertinent courtier from Denerim. No one had dared breathe a word about it in his earshot since.

He never had told his wife that he knew that the ability to sire was not beyond him. Reports had placed a pregnant Morrigan heading west near a decade ago, after all. He had a feeling that even though she had used blood magic to conceive that it had not been just that that overcame the taint. He froze, looked at the bottle again and then squeaked in shock when the door opened and his Queen stepped through with Erlina.

“Alistair?” She asked when the King had gracefully stumbled backwards at the sight of her. “Alistair, what is it?”

Blood magic. Blood magic is what it was but he would never tell her.

“I would speak to you alone. I have received a letter of import.” He looked at Erlina, who bowed and scurried out. They had probably thought to sneak in here for a little stress relief before finding him inside. He did not care; after all he had a mistress as well, he could not deny his wife the same. The door closed.

“Is it from Neria?”

“No, but she sent a message in it. There is....” he drew in a breath “There is a researcher at Soldier’s Peak and he has sent a potion for you. I leave it up to you whether you would drink or not, but I think Neria has hinted it might be an aid to conception.”

Anora blinked, then held her hand out for the letter. She read it once, then once more and she walked to the bottle and pulled the glass stopper free.

“It might be blood magic, it might even not be what Neria was told and it might harm you.” He warned, knowing what Avernus was capable of. Anora ignored him and drank it in one gulp. She winced and he went to her.

“You did not need to do that.”

“Yes I did. I did not wed you to retain my throne only to leave another power vacuum and civil war just because I could not give you a child. The Theirin line must be preserved if Ferelden is going to continue.” She pushed him backwards on to the bed and lifted her skirts before climbing atop him. She quickly made deft work of the laces on his breeches. “Just lay back and think of Ferelden, my King.”

She sealed her lips over his and Alistair gave in.

\-----

The guilt Alistair carried with him finally dissipated when his Queen did not get her courses, did not have to hold her head high whilst hiding her pain in front of the court. Congratulations flowed in at the announcement and Anora’s waistline expanded.

He stood at the antechamber to his marital chamber’s windows, looking out over his realm in thought while Anora was slumbering in the bedroom, Erlina wrapped around her gently. He did not wish to disturb them, often excusing himself down the secret passage to Neria’s rooms so that they could have some peace.

All in all, it had not turned out so bad to be the King. It did bother him though that he could not do what he wanted even though he was the highest rank in the realm. Anora was his wife, she was growing his child within her. He knew she would have preferred to be with Erlina as he would prefer to be with Neria. Both human monarchs in love with elves - the stupidity of his court stopping them from pursuing that. As Anora swelled with his child, he could only wish it was Neria that was asleep in his bed. He was soon to have two children, neither of which were with the woman he truly wanted to have settled and been with. One even, with a woman he despised just so that Neria might live.

She lived, that he was sure of though he had received no word from her at all. Only a report sent on from the Left Hand of the Divine that the Warden-Commander and Zevran had been seen passing through the Western Approach a few weeks back. Leliana always sent him little reports that she felt might help him or Ferelden and he was very grateful for it.

What was out west that she might be pursuing to find the answer to the Calling? Did she know that Anora was with child? Did she hope that she was, to help her love and her friend?

It was infuriating, getting no answers. He threw himself down at her desk and spotted the letter from Avernus that he had forgotten after Anora had conceived. He grabbed some parchment and wrote out a letter, sealing it with the seal of the King and hurrying to give it to his most trusted messenger.

“See that this reaches the former Grand Enchanter Fiona of Orlais. I wish you to place this personally in to her hand - and only her hand. Bring me her response.”

“Your Highness,” the messenger curtsied and then took off on her mission. 

He sighed in relief. He still knew not where Neria and Zevran were, but he trusted the devoted elf to keep her safe. He might have come to them as an assassin but he had proven the most devoted bodyguard Alistair could have ever dreamed of for his love. He would have chosen no other blade to join her’s than Zevran’s as he could not accompany her himself.

That night, he had no nightmares at all.

\-----

Anora had gone in to her confinement when the messenger returned - not just with the response, but with Fiona herself. He immediately sent the messenger for her considerable reward and took Fiona to the Warden-Commander’s rooms to speak in true privacy. Neria had warded them herself, after all.

“I was curious as to why you asked for my help,” the woman told him in a heavy Orlesian accent, looking at him intently.

“I have been reliably informed” it seemed odd to call Avernus _reliable_ , but there it was “that you were once a Grey Warden and that you are the sole Warden to have ever been cleansed of the taint.”

“Yes, you said as much in your letter. I came here to ask why you thought I might be able to help you.”

“Ah, yes,” his manner had grown more Kingly as he had got older and settled in to the familiarity of the role but he felt like a babbling moron speaking with this woman. “I mean, well, I was once a Warden, but as you have likely heard, I have an heir on the way and I would like to see him or her grow. Without fear of the Calling taking me away.”

“I fear that I will be of little help. I know not why I lost the taint or why I resisted all attempts to reinstate it in me.” Fiona began but Alistair cut in.

“They tried to give it back to you?”

“I could not be a Warden without it, but by then I was glad it could not take hold once more. I had battled darkspawn, I had ventured in to the Deep Roads and I did not wish a return to that life. Not any more.”

“You went in to the Deep Roads?”

“I did. I actually knew you father, King Maric. I went with him in to the Deep Roads when he was our guide.”

Alistair blinked, dropped his mouth open in a very un-kingly manner and gaped at her. “My father went in to the Deep Roads twice? Why did I never know of this?”

“It was a secret - it was also why I came here myself. I did not wish to put these revelations in a simple letter. Your father had been in the Deep Roads as part of the fight to reclaim Ferelden. The Grey Wardens faced a terrible emergency and we needed a guide down to Ortan Thaig. We petitioned the King for someone to guide us, thinking he would send Loghain Mac Tir as he had been with him but he surprised us and came himself.”

“Why did he not send Loghain?” Alistair wondered if maybe Cailan would never have been murdered had Loghain gone to the Deep Roads instead, but it was pointless as the past could not be changed.

“Many reasons, but I believe the foremost were trying to prevent a Blight and because he was very despondent after Queen Rowan had died. He needed something to distract him, to take him on something that had meaning.”

Alistair realised that if Queen Rowan had died, then Cailan was already born and that made him desperately sad for his deceased half-brother. What kind of life had he might have lived, knowing his father up and chased darkspawn in to the Deep Roads instead of staying to raise him? Suddenly, sleeping in a barn did not seem so sad.

“What about his son?”

“He felt like a failure as a father. He had such high hopes for Cailan - and for you. He never liked being the King but he tried his best.”

“I do not want to disappear in to the Deep Roads and leave my child and wife alone.”

“I am sorry I could not help you more. Please do not let me leave you with a negative opinion of your father. Maric was infuriating, insufferable and a complete pain; but he was also very kind and loving. He was insecure and awkward and he could really hold his own in an argument.”

A suspicion began to grow in Alistair that Fiona might have had feelings for his father, it certainly seemed like she was trying to help even when she likely could not.

“We argued constantly when he first joined us. I even tried to convince him to leave and let us complete our mission without him. He was a King, his country needed him, but after time… we grew to understand one another.”

“Did you find what you were looking for in the Deep Roads? I do not have to fear another Blight?”

“We found much in the Deep Roads and more. To tell a long story in simple terms, our group had been given some amulets by the former First Enchanter of Kinloch Hold, Remille. They were supposed to keep us safe but instead they accelerated the taint in us. Only Duncan remained free of it, we did not know why at first.”

“Duncan?” Alistair started at the name.

“He was our junior member at the time. He had stolen a dagger from Remille which later proved to be what was keeping him safe. Of our company, only myself, Maric and Duncan escaped the tragedy in the Deep Roads in a manner of speaking. After Maric returned to Denerim, Duncan and I travelled to Weisshaupt to brief the Grey Wardens of what had happened. It was then that we discovered the taint had withdrawn from me. We thought it might have been the amulet at first, but Duncan still had the taint.”

“My researcher actually found something interesting recently. Dragon’s blood can dissolve the taint and it ca-” he froze and stared at the woman. She was friends with Maric, she spoke of him fondly. She had spoken of Maric going away from the castle after Rowan had died and Cailan was still young. She knew Duncan and the man’s affection for Alistair had always been more than he thought most Grey Warden recruits got. After the debacle with Goldanna, he had tried one last stab at finding out more about his supposed mother and found not a shred of evidence about her. His nameday seemed to coincide with Maric’s trip and this woman had been freed of the taint; likely through Maric’s dragon blood combining with her own in the womb to create himself. “You… you’re my mother?”

“I…” the woman lifted her hands defensively and took a frightened step back. “No. I am not.”

“It has to be you. Is this why it was kept a secret from me? My father had a child with an elven Orlesian mage commoner? An embodiment of all the things the Ferelden nobles would not accept?”

“I could not let you grow up with that burden!” Her protests died and she looked shocked at herself.

“So you _are_ my mother. I’m elf-blooded.”

“You are,” she sighed. “I could not let you grow up with being Maric’s son by an Orlesian elf. He already had an heir, he hated being the King and the burden it brought. I did not want that for you, the lies, the comments and the competition with Cailan. I wanted you to be free.”

“I _wanted_ a mother.”

“I could not be that for you. I was a Grey Warden, I was a mage - after I left the Wardens because of the taint being taken, I had to go to a circle. They would not have allowed me to keep you there. It was that or turn apostate and always be on the run - no life for a child. I entrusted you to Maric to keep you safe - and he did.”

“Yet I ended up the King anyway,” he reminded her.

“You did, but it was nothing we were prepared for. You have done well, your rule is considered a good one and yet I still wish you were not trapped here in a political marriage.”

“I care for my Queen.”

“But you love another.”

“...how do you know that?” Alistair was shocked, had he not been discreet enough?

“This room belongs to a Grey Warden and the sheets have been slept in today.” His Mother pointed out and he wondered why he did not get her shrewdness. “There is only one other Warden who has a room in the palace and she is not here.”

“Ah.”

“Ah, indeed. It seems the Theirin attraction to elves is in the blood. Perhaps one day, your line can overturn the prejudice that I wanted to keep you away from.”

“Stay. I would like you to meet your grandchild.” 

“I do not know if that would be wise.” She countered and he knew she was right.

“I think I might be fed up with people being wise.” He sighed, sadly.

“I will stay until the babe is born, but then I must return to my duties.”

\-----

Anora’s screams of pain were making him anxious and he was walking up and down the room, pacing and driving everyone present to distraction. It was only when his mother laid a gentle hand on his arm that he began to calm. No one else, not even Anora, knew who she really was - all they knew was that she was an advisor of the Grey Wardens in Warden-Commander Surana’s absence and they let it stay that way.

Hours had passed and all he had heard were her screams, all he had seen from the room were servants hurrying in and out with bloodstained sheets and heated waters, steeped in elfroot.

Finally, though, the screaming ceased and the cry of a babe was heard through the door. A moment later, Alistair was allowed in to the room to look upon his wife and child. Anora was holding a tiny human being, face squashed and red and covered in blood and yet he had never seen anything more perfect. He was a father. True, he had had one other child but he did not even know the babe’s name nor the gender. This child, this was tangible to him and he moved closer and reverently touched the head.

“We have a daughter, my husband,” Anora told him and the babe blinked her eyes open.

“I have a baby girl?” It seemed unreal.

“We do, she is your little princess.” He stared at the babe whilst the nursemaids fussed around quietly and the noblewomen present to witness the birth watched on. He looked up and saw his mother standing at the door, looking in on the situation.

“I would name her Neria, with your agreement,” Anora looked at Alistair and smiled. “After our dear friend, the Hero of Ferelden.”

Something in Alistair twisted but he smiled.

“May she be as strong as her namesake.”

\-----

It was Princess Neria’s first birthday and the court was celebrating when the Warden-Commander walked through the door, Zevran at her side. Alistair just about held his countenance as he looked at her. Her skin was not so pale, her eyes a little brighter than he remembered and she smiled at him.

“Announcing Warden-Commander Surana of the Grey Wardens, Arlessa of Amaranthine and her companion, Zevran Arainai of Antiva.”

She walked forward and the two bowed in unison before the throne.

“Your mission is complete?” he asked her, almost overcome with emotion at seeing her face again, seeing her alive once more.

“It is.”

He gestured for his court announcer to bang their staff on the floor for attention, despite every eye in the room trained on the King and their Hero.

“Then all present, bear witness to this day. The Hero of Ferelden has once again done great service to our land. What boon would you ask of me?”

“It was not just I, Your Highness. I would ask that my travelling companion is also recognised.” He smiled at her, unsurprised by such a request.

“Zevran Arainai, I name you Arl of Denerim.” Every mouth in the room fell in astonishment, even his Queen’s, his lover’s and the former assassin’s at the pronouncement. “For services rendered to the Kingdom and in the Blight.”

“Th- thank you, Your Highness.” Arl Arainai stammered out, looking at Neria in amazement.

“Now, to other causes for celebration.” He bent and picked up his precious princess. “May I present the name-day girl, Princess Neria Fiona Anora Theirin.”

Neria stared at him, then bowed to the girl as the celebrations - and the outraged gossip - broke out around them once again.

\-----

“You never cease to amaze me, many will be angry with yo-” He shut the door behind him and cut her off with a desperate kiss.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, Alistair. We did it. I am cured of the taint and I can show you how, I brought the-” he cut her off again by lifting her chin and looking in to those big eyes.

“Turns out, the Theirin bloodline scours out the taint itself.”

“So, you’re free as well?”

“I am.” He kissed her again. This may not have been the happily ever after he dreamed of as a child, or as a teen alone and near-friendless in the Chantry; but he was happy and that was all that mattered.


End file.
